Why Secondary Professions Matter in WoW Cataclysm (2024)

Professions in World of Warcraft: Classic are not the primary motivation when it comes time to pay the monthly subscription, at least not for most players. Alchemy, Skinning, Tailoring, and the other main professions all have their benefits, though, and players should certainly utilize their two primary profession slots. Most players do this, but not enough players acknowledge the might of secondary professions.

While secondary professions don’t bring perks such as Herbalism’s healing ability Lifeblood or Skinning’s extra critical strike, they do bring a plethora of utility and fun to the game. With the release of Cataclysm, there are now four secondary professions. You can learn and master all four on a single character without sacrificing your two primary profession slots. The secondary professions are first aid, fishing, cooking, and the newly added archeology. This article will cover the basics of these professions and explain why you need to pick them up.

Archeology

Starting off with the newest secondary profession! Archeology will have you travel the world in search of rare and valuable finds, including mounts, battle pets, and even powerful weapons and gear!

Why Should I Learn This?

• Collectible Rewards
  • Archeology offers players a new way to get mounts, battle pets, achievements, toys, armor, weapons, and titles! If you’d like to ride a skeletal dinosaur into battle while waving around your trusty weapon Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds, you’ll need this secondary profession.
• Dungeon Quests
  • Many dungeons in Cataclysm have an optional daily quest that can only be completed by seasoned archeologists. From summoning bear cubs to help you out in Zul’Aman to helping you speed through the Halls of Origination; these daily quests should be all the convincing you need to learn and master archeology.
• Exploration and Fun
  • With this secondary profession, you’ll be traveling to the ends of Azeroth searching for dig sites. If you’re looking to uncover the whole map and have fun while doing it, pick up archeology!

The Ideal Archeologist

• Primary Professions
  • Since you’ll be exploring a lot, two gathering professions wouldn’t be a bad idea. Alchemists can loot the recipe for Vial of the Sands if they also know archeology, making them useful archeologists.
• Race
  • Dwarves have the racial passive Explorer, which gives them a huge buff in this area.
• Class
  • Druids make excellent archeologists thanks to their Travel Form ability. Other than that, any class with solid mobility will work best.
• Other Stats/Info
  • Your toon should be decently geared for current content to get the most use out of archeology and have flying unlocked where possible.

Cooking

Any solid raid team needs food before a battle! Cooking allows players to turn mundane ingredients into stat boosters, making this secondary profession essential.

Why Should I Learn This?

• Valuable Buffs
  • Raiders love food. It’s a simple fact! Experienced cooks can create huge meals such as the Seafood Magnifique Feast to help out everyone in their party or smaller snacks such as the legendary Fortune Cookie.
• Achievements
  • A series of achievements are associated with cooking. If you want to rack up achievement points, this secondary profession can help out!
• Reputation
  • Cooking dailies can be used to get some extra reputation based on the city you completed the quest for.
• Gold
  • With cooking, you can sometimes convert low-cost materials into expensive dishes that can be sold to other players.

The Ideal Cook

• Primary Professions
  • Cooks need a lot of meat. If you farm the reagents yourself, you’ll likely end up killing plenty of beasts. Skinning can bring in extra profit by allowing you to gather hides along the way. Also, while not a primary profession, fishing and cooking can be easily used together. A lot of cooking recipes require fish.
• Race
  • Racial passives don’t matter much for Cataclysm cooking. Worgen do, however, have an edge in Skinning. As such, if you plan to skin the beasts you slay for meat, you might as well play a Worgen. Goblins can sometimes get vendor discounts, which can make them a slightly better choice. Trolls gain a buff when fighting beast mobs, so you might want to play as a Troll if you plan to farm your own meat.
• Class
  • Rogues can make Thistle Tea with this secondary profession, allowing them to speed up the leveling process while also producing powerful consumables for their class.
• Other Stats/Info
  • Your toon should be able to either farm mobs for meat or have the gold to purchase meat from other players.

First Aid

When you or your allies end up wounded in Azeroth, you can’t just dial for emergency services. You have to take matters into your own hands with potions, healing abilities, or first aid!

Why Should I Learn This?

• Utility
  • Depending on what bandages you can make, you may be able to save your allies from certain death with this secondary profession! Dense Embersilk Bandages, for example, heal players for 35,000 over 8 seconds.

The Ideal Paramedic

• Primary Professions
  • Tailors can gather extra cloth if they play the game right. Since cloth is needed for bandages, Tailoring is an excellent choice for a primary profession. If you want to be a true master at helping your injured allies, you could also pick up Alchemy.
• Race
  • If you plan to pair this secondary profession with Alchemy, it is suggested that you play a Goblin thanks to their racial passive, Better Living Through Chemistry. If not, you may want to play a race that has an extra healing ability. Trolls have Regeneration, for example, which increases their personal healing. On the Alliance side, the otherworldly Draenei have the racial ability Gift of the Naaru. Some races also have tank abilities, such as Quickness, the Night Elf racial passive. Those races may also be nice picks, but it truly depends on how you play.
• Class
  • The class you play won’t be a huge deal here, but it may be nice to play as a healing specialization. Depending on how you play, your groups may rely on you as their main source of healing–especially if you master the healing professions!
• Other Stats/Info
  • You’ll probably want a lot of gold or a lot of free time for this one, as it requires a long list of cloth materials. Cloth can get expensive in bulk quantities and farming it often takes quite a while.

Fishing

Finishing off strong with fishing! Fishing may be the most peaceful profession right now, so it’s perfect for taking a long break. Feel free to watch a movie on your second monitor while waiting to reel ‘em in!

Why Should I Learn This?

• Materials
  • Fish is needed for a lot of cooking recipes, so it always proves worthwhile to know at least the basics of it. With this secondary profession, you can also get Volatile Fire and Volatile Water, two new reagents that are in high demand. Without fishing, you can’t get Bags of Shiny Things. Who doesn’t want shiny things? These bags can contain items ranging from vendor trash to healing potions.
• Collectibles
  • Strand Crawlers are companion pets that can be obtained through fishing. They’re cute, feisty, and pretty daggone rare. You can also learn the recipe for Captain Rumsey’s Lager, an alcoholic drink, with fishing. This beverage increases your fishing skill for a time after drinking it. Just be careful to not drunkenly impale yourself on the hooks!
• Achievements
  • If you’re looking for some extra achievements, fishing has you covered. Most of the fishing achievements only reward points, but the guild achievement That’s A Lot of Bait unlocks a valuable cooking recipe!
• Relaxation
  • Seriously, fishing is so simple you can watch a movie while doing it. If you want to make some gold while watching TV, try out this secondary profession.
• Reputation
  • Like with cooking, fishing dailies can be used to get some extra reputation based on the city you completed the quest for.

The Ideal Fisher

• Primary Professions
  • Fishing can take you anywhere in Azeroth, so you’ll get a variety of materials if you pick up a gathering profession or two. While cooking is a secondary profession, it does pair well with fishing. As such, it is wise to level them together.
• Race
  • Undead can breathe underwater better than other races. While you won’t necessarily need to submerge yourself to catch fish, this can be helpful when swimming in general.
• Class
  • Shaman can walk on water and breathe while submerged, making them an excellent pick. Priests can use Levitate to walk on water, so they aren’t half bad either. Druids always make good gathering toons, so if you plan to combine two primary gathering professions with fishing…play a druid.
• Other Stats/Info
  • Nothing to see here!

Closing Thoughts

With secondary professions, much more is possible. You can explore the past and forge your future with archeology; prepare a feast with cooking; mend wounds with first aid; and/or relax in the midst of chaos with fishing. World of Warcraft has more than just wars in it. Get out there and let out your inner artisan!

WoW-Expansion-Classic Gold RatingBased on the total ratings of 12707 orders in the past year.